Booming firm to create 50 extra jobs

A booming Wigan logistics giant is set to create dozens more jobs as it expands further.

ArrowXL has completed work on a £1.7m high bay pallet racking system at its vast warehouse on the Martland Park industrial estate.

The substantial investment doubles the existing capacity at the delivery hub and allows the firm to further strengthen its service proposition to retailers and manufacturers.

Bosses say that this will lead to the creation of around 50 jobs in the coming months, adding to the existing, 460-strong workforce.

The new 45ft-high racking incorporates contains a massive 17,000 pallet spaces, increasing the overall storage capacity at the warehouse to 34,000 spaces in total.

Construction began last year and the new high bay racking system incorporates upgraded flooring, state-of-the-art lighting installations and sprinkler systems for fire prevention.

The Wigan premises has served as one of the company’s network of specialist distribution centres since March 2013.

As a result of this investment ArrowXL, which calls itself “the UK’s leading two-man home delivery expert,” it says it will now be able to offer even more warehousing and storage-plus-delivery opportunities to retailers, manufacturers and drop-ship vendors at the site.

The company already provides a range of dedicated services of this type to a number of leading retailers.

Commercial director Paul Tyson said: “This substantial investment will play a key role in our strategic plans for future growth.

“It signifies our commitment to constantly strengthen our infrastructure across the UK, in order to improve the current services we provide to our existing clients, as well as attracting new business.

“In addition to our portfolio of award-winning two-man delivery services, we now have the opportunity to provide an increased range of warehousing and fulfilment solutions to retailers and manufacturers of any size.”

ArrowXL occupies the site that was once the home to mail order colossus Great Universal Stores (GUS), followed by Reality and White Arrow.

It has won a hatful of awards of late.

Most recently it clinched the Delivery On Demand category at The World Post and Parcel Awards for its AskAxl web app.

It beat off competition from around the globe and received the award at a prestigious gala evening held at L’Hotel du Collectionneur in Paris.

The app is designed to provide “choice, convenience, certainty and personalisation.

It enables customers to select their delivery date at the checkout, or book delivery via two-way SMS. It offers two-hour timeslots as standard which are dynamically updated, reducing to just 30 minutes.

A web-chat facility is available for customer questions and delivery detail amends and a visual web-app enables customers to track progress of the delivery vehicle. The names of the team who’ll deliver the purchase are provided and customers receive a phone call from them while they’re en route.

It was shortlisted for three Motor Transport Awards last year where it won both the Home Delivery Operator of the Year and won Best Use of Technology titles.

And at the beginning of 2017 was given an “excellent” rating by online consumer review website Trustpilot: the highest of any UK mainstream carrier.

And it was a double winner in Retail Week’s Supply Chain Awards and Tech and Ecomm Awards.

ArrowXL delivers more than 14,000 products to more than 7,000 homes every day, covering 98 per cent of UK postcodes, six days a week.

After 25 years in business, the company is currently delivering a massive 2.3 million consignments per year, and bosses predict that figure to grow rapidly.